Dragon City

[GeneChing]

Donnie has a crazy amount of projects lined up...

Hong Kong's Media Asia Announces Two Donnie Yen Action Vehicles (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/two-donnie-yen-projects-coming-438209)
3:23 AM PDT 4/12/2013 by Karen Chu

"The Master" and "Dragon City" will be shopped at Cannes and produced by Super Hero, the production banner co-founded by Yen and Media Asia.

HONG KONG – Media Asia has announced the first two starring vehicles for Donnie Yen (Ip Man) under its Super Hero label, the company’s joint venture with Yen.

The first of the planned films is martial arts drama The Master, to be directed by Hong Kong's Soi Cheang (Motorway). Set in the 1970s, The Master tells the story of a Hong Kong immigrant and kung fu school owner in the U.S., who inadvertently becomes a gun shop owner’s target of revenge.

The second project is Dragon City, to be directed by Derek Kwok (Gallants). A crime action-drama also set in the 1970s, Dragon City sees Yen play a cop who gathers a team of policemen to fight their corrupt counterparts and other villains in the notorious Kowloon Walled City, a self-contained project-like community that was torn down in Hong Kong in 1993.

Yen will star in both films, which are now in pre-production and will begin filming in 2013. The projects will be produced by Super Hero and repped by Media Asia at the upcoming Cannes market.

Media Asia Distribution will also bring to Cannes Drug War, director Johnnie To’s recent winner of the Grand Prix at the Beaune International Thriller Film Festival 2013 in France and To’s The Blind Detective, starring Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng; Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? from Taiwanese director Arvin Chen; another Andy Lau-starrer and art world crime caper, Switch; the Pang Ho-cheung produced action comedy SDU: Sex Duties Unit; and comedy Campus Confidential from Taiwan’s Chunyu Lai.

[Brule]

Hopefully we don't see a 'Donnie Yen taking a break from filming - Burnt out' thread in the coming weeks. That would be a downer for sure but with the amount of work he's involved with, it wouldn't really be a surprise.

[Jimbo]

It looks like Donnie's getting in as much onscreen work as possible now, while he's still more or less at the top of his game physically, before he switches to mostly, or solely, behind the camera. Which is a smart move. At this time, I still don't see any young up-and-comers who can take his place.

These two projects sound interesting. Certainly a lot better than Donnie's ancient period pieces. He certainly works better in modern settings, or fairly recent history, i.e., no earlier than the late Qing/Ching Dynasty, early republic. Period films set in the '70s ought to be interesting (was it already long enough ago to be considered 'period'?).